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Hasu Cook Session IV:
Morue à la Provençale
Introduction
Welcome ladies and gentlemen! Were you surprised by the unintelligible gibberish in the title? It's written in a language called French (the language of silly surrender monkeys from some far off land for you American readers), and it says something like "codfish cooked in the Provence style". In Mark Twain's book "Huckleberry Finn", the character Jim had the sense to ask why these Frenchies can't speak Americanese like the rest of us sensible folk, and well, I don't know. Anyhow, these French people are allegedly world renowned for their cuisine, topping even McDonald's and Taco Bell in the techniques and flavors of their food.
I have once again been called to do some mercenary cooking for my room mate, who managed to bargain for a rather nice looking piece of cod in exchange for some mere pieces of green-colored paper. This Provence way of cooking codfish is what I decided upon, after reading through a couple dozen recipes involving frying, searing, poaching, and baking this fish. The recipe comes directly from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It is unadulterated, since I am still new to the French way of cooking. If you plan to follow this recipe, please read through the entire recipe (or at least the recipe as it appears on page 219 of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking") so that you are not caught off-guard by any equipment required.
Ingredients
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RbG1O.jpg)
Yes, all these things just to pamper that small piece of fish on the left. Its 15 minutes of fame before disappearing forever into someone's gut.
Prep and cook time: ~1 hour
Serves Two
1 lbs cod fish fillet, cut into 3-4 pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
1 lb tomatoes, peeled and seeded*
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 cups white wine
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt
pepper
1/2 tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp softened butter**
*instructions will be provided on how to go about this below.
**must be at least room temperature! Plan ahead for this if you keep your butter in the refrigerator.
Author's Note: normally I will say something like "feel free to leave out whatever you do not have or are not willing to shell out money for", but if you are really interested in learning French cuisine, you should try to obtain as many of these ingredients as possible to really understand the full gamut of what each ingredient is trying to accomplish in the dish. Also, the cooking process is rather long and complex compared to some of the other dishes I have written about. Please follow the instructions as closely as possible because each step has a very specific reason. Omitting any step can result in a significantly different result.
Cooking
We will start by bringing a pot of water to boil. While the water is heating up, start on your prep work by mashing your clove of garlic, dividing and salt and peppering your cod, washing your tomatoes, and chopping your onions. Salt the cod more lightly than you would pork or beef. It is very easy to over-salt your fish.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cqi9P.jpg)
Fresh herbs?!? This guy really sold out from his roots as a dirt-cheap cook. You bet your ass I did.
Once the water is boiling, dump (or dip individually with a ladle) your tomatoes into the water and submerge for 10 seconds. Remove them from heat immediately afterwards. This will allow you to easily peel your tomatoes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Wws6a.jpg)
Look how red those tomatoes are. You could wave this jpeg in front of a bull and he would charge.
Peel the tomatoes and remove that brown dot where the stem of the vine connects to the tomato. Cut each tomato in half across the width (the latitude). Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and soft juicy parts of the tomato. Either use these in another dish or discard them. Meanwhile, dice and collect the rest of the tomato. These will be used as the bulk of the sauce for this fish dish.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OMPhE.jpg)
They're so juicy and plump and smooth. Then you GOUGE OUT THEIR INSIDES AND CHOP THEM ALL INTO TINY BITS.
It's time to move on to the fish! Pour two tablespoons of olive oil into a pan over medium-high heat until the olive oil begins to smoke. Saute your fish pieces for 1-2 minutes per side to lightly brown each side. Remember, the fish should sizzle when you drop it into the oil. If you do not audibly hear the sizzle, take the fish out and wait for the oil to heat up further.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GnjEw.jpg)
It's poissonous.
Remove fish from the heat and set aside for now. In the same pan, gently cook your onions for about 5 minutes to soften but not brown. You will need to turn the heat down for the onions. Preheat your oven to 325F (160C) After five minutes add the tomatoes, garlic clove, oregano, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for five more minutes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/D1sZN.jpg)
If it wasn't for human fixation on meat this could easily be a tomato dish with cod playing a supporting role.
Prepare a baking pan. Place your fish on the bottom and pour your tomato sauce on top. Cover the pan (use aluminum foil if you lack a lid). Bake at the bottom third rack for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven. Add 1/2 cup of white wine and return the pan to the oven for 10 more minutes. In retrospect, my cook's instinct tells me that this step is critical. The addition of wine half-way through the cooking process lowers the heat of the dish and prevents the fish from overcooking.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YUdha.jpg)
I wonder if some 10 year old will ever stumble onto this blog and go "What? They call this fish cod? Those fuckers totally stole that name from Call of Duty."
As your fish is baking, finely chop a tablespoon or two of parsley and mix together your flour and butter into a paste.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bJ3ic.jpg)
According to CSI if you zoom in closely enough onto the reflection in the spoon you could see my face.
After 20 cumulative minutes in the oven take the fish out. Separate the sauce from the fish fillets. Keep the fillets warm somewhere. Dump your sauce back into the pan and boil on high heat until you have less than a cup of it left. Don't worry about the chunky tomatoes, the heat will reduce them into near oblivion by the time your sauce is done. At this point, add a tablespoon of tomato paste and your butter/flour paste and cook for another minute.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Kgltq.jpg)
What if the reason why god isn't real is because there was a typo a long time ago, and we were supposed to be praying to cod all along?
You are almost done! Take the sauce off heat and dump in your chopped parsley. Mix. Prepare a number of plates. Arrange your cod piece(s) onto the plate and pour sauce onto the cod. Serve warm.
The Result
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Vf6RL.jpg)
All that work for such a small portion. Oliver Twist would look at this and ask you for more.
??? / 5 Another mercenary effort so I am not entirely sure exactly how good it tastes. The sauce is pretty good at any rate. It is a bit tart, since I still can't be arsed to grow my own tomatoes and supermarket tomatoes in the United States are typically rather poor in flavor compared to homegrown. If you have access to homegrown, ripe tomatoes, I highly recommend you try this dish with it. You will see a huge difference.
Conclusion
An interesting anecdote is that while I was growing up, raised in a traditional Chinese family, we always looked down on "Western" cuisine as rough and simplistic. My only contact with Western "cuisine" at the time being cafeteria food from school, I was inclined to agree. Steamed peas? Green beans boiled until they were turning yellow? Raw vegetable salads? These foods seemed so basic and flavorless compared to the stir fries of Chinese cooking which involved much washing, slicing, cooking, and saucing. And so I relayed these observations to my parents, who used these findings to reinforce their prejudices against western cuisine. To this day, many first-generation Chinese immigrants hold onto these same prejudices even after having lived in the United States for decades.
But you know, and I know, that these people, as proud as they are of their own cuisine, are missing an entire world of food. To me, right now, French cooking is still a bit of a novelty. It is exotic, complex, and a lot of fun.
The moral of the story is to not be be afraid to try out new foods, even if you do not like it the first time you try it. At the very least you'll leave the meal with an interesting story about that time you tried wild boar's sphincter poached in the tears of seven year old children, or whatever that dish may be!
As always, questions and comments are welcome. If you liked this blog and wish to read more, all past installments of Hasu Cook as well as my other blog series The Ghetto Cook can be found on my main blog,
http://foodinmind.wordpress.com
Until next time, please remember that boar's sphincter is not, to my knowledge, part of any nation's cuisine.
 
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Vancouver14381 Posts
This looks amazing. I should try this out sometime. All of your blogs so far have been fantastic.
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I love that your fish comes in a package labelled, "seafood". I don't know why, but it makes me giggle, even though I don't eat fish.
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Oh, hello Barefoot Riesling. There's an empty bottle of you in my recycle bin. I love Riesling, and as a graduate student, I also love when my wine is $6 a liter.
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The recipe is pretty good, however the use of butter mixed with flour is weird. Provençale food normally does not use butter at all, and flour does not add anything to the taste, it's merely used here to thicken the sauce, I would not use it. Simply put some chopped parsley on top of it in the end rather than this butter-flour-parsley mixture. Everything else is the correct way.
I agree that the quality of tomatoes is crucial, this dish will taste much better at the end of summer using ripe tomatoes !
It's also funny that you use the word "morue" as morue usually designates salted and dried cod. I would have called this recipe "Cabillaud à la Provençale" 
By the way, I'm French living in China, so I know what you mean in your conclusion haha.
Did you get a new mobile phone ? The quality of the pictures seems to have improved a lot, red stuffs don't look orange-pinkish anymore.
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On May 02 2012 12:25 endy wrote:The recipe is pretty good, however the use of butter mixed with flour is weird. Provençale food normally does not use butter at all, and flour does not add anything to the taste, it's merely used here to thicken the sauce, I would not use it. Simply put some chopped parsley on top of it in the end rather than this butter-flour-parsley mixture. Everything else is the correct way. I agree that the quality of tomatoes is crucial, this dish will taste much better at the end of summer using ripe tomatoes ! It's also funny that you use the word "morue" as morue usually designates salted and dried cod. I would have called this recipe "Cabillaud à la Provençale" By the way, I'm French living in China, so I know what you mean in your conclusion haha. Did you get a new mobile phone ? The quality of the pictures seems to have improved a lot, red stuffs don't look orange-pinkish anymore.
Thanks! Your post are always awesome. Google seemed to have failed me on what is the French word for "cod" :/
It's the same mobile phone lol. It's just usually my hands are very shaky when I take pictures and the lighting is bad.
Apparently the best time for me to cook (and take pictures) is around late afternoon/sunset, when the outside light plus indoor lighting is just right. I try to rest the phone on a solid object instead of holding it in my hands.
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Just curious, which part of China are you from. I live in Beijing and don't really know where to look for good ingredients, besides Jenny Lous but they are seriously overpriced.
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Hmm. I remember my mom attempting to make this, overcooking the cod, and it being a fiasco. If cod goes on sale I'll try this.
Although cod is so darn mild
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On May 02 2012 13:37 EchoZ wrote:
Just curious, which part of China are you from. I live in Beijing and don't really know where to look for good ingredients, besides Jenny Lous but they are seriously overpriced.
I live in Seattle, Washington, which isn't part of China (yet). Are you Chinese, or just living in China?
I can't believe you live in China and can't find good ingredients! Chinese agriculture is pretty ass-backwards, which means minimal mass harvesting of unripe fruits then spraying on growth hormones on their way to the market. Aside from watermelon, pineapples, and maybe a few other fruits, Chinese produce should all be of significantly higher quality than you can find in American grocery stores (short of Whole Foods ripoff bullshit).
From my experience living in Shanghai, although indoor megamarkets are becoming more common, you should be able to find good quality ingredients at your nearest open-air market, which are only open on certain days of the week I believe. Most fruits and vegetables are seasonal. There are oftentimes multiple farmers selling the same thing (tomatoes or green beans, for instance), so you can pick and choose which seller has the best quality or price.
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On May 02 2012 13:37 EchoZ wrote:
Just curious, which part of China are you from. I live in Beijing and don't really know where to look for good ingredients, besides Jenny Lous but they are seriously overpriced.
Not sure about Beijing, but in Shanghai I avoid the supermarkets where the quality of the products is awful.
I buy everything in the street, it's better and cheaper.
I go to imported food stores only to buy cream / cheese / capers / anchovies / Habanero sauce / fresh thyme / fresh foie gras / coffee and that's pretty much it.
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Those are some nice tomatoes lol : )
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I am from Provence, and this is a dish I love, those photos are making me so hungry!
People cook with tons of flavors there, because there are many aromatic plants that grow everywhere (it is in the French countryside), so you just need to step out of your house to add amazing flavors to every dish.
And Olive oil, oh god, this is just so good 
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Why not just substitute with a big can of nice chunk tomatoes?
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I always read your blogs late at night... and I make myself so hungry
I wish I were rich and could hire you as my personal chef T_T
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On May 02 2012 18:40 JerKy wrote:
I always read your blogs late at night... and I make myself so hungry
I wish I were rich and could hire you as my personal chef T_T
I think we all wish we were culinary warlords that could hire her as a mercenary. These blogs are so much fun to read
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From the ghetto to French puns, a toothsome journey to be sure.
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On May 02 2012 17:04 Disregard wrote:
Why not just substitute with a big can of nice chunk tomatoes?
iieeeeek noo ;(!! Homegrown all the way.
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One point of technique, when concasing a tomato it is generally a good idea to score a small x in the bottom before blanching them. This makes the skin peel away easier and more consistantly with less time spent in the water. It also allows you to peel the skin off evenly in nicely shaped peices, which can then be dehydrated or fried to make garnish.
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Oooo that sauce looks yummy. It's funny, here in the midwest I'm sure there are a lot of older people who's minds would be blown if you told them there were other ways to cook fish besides deep frying
5/5 Nicely done as usual.
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You want to cut me into pieces and serve me with a sauce? :O
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Those tomatoes look orgasmic.
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Have you tried just slapping together any recipes yet? Homebrewed recipes can be some of the best (and worst) experiences you'll ever have with food, but sometimes it will introduce you to flavors you'll almost never see in a cookbook.
Like nutmeg in a batter on basa fish. Just a tiny bit. Delicious. (Nutmeg is really easy to overdo, by the way.)
In retrospect, that would have turned out better if I hadn't tried to make up a batter from the ground up, but just chosen seasonings to taste, but hey. Live and learn.
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On May 02 2012 11:27 Newbistic wrote:
Conclusion
An interesting anecdote is that while I was growing up, raised in a traditional Chinese family, we always looked down on "Western" cuisine as rough and simplistic. My only contact with Western "cuisine" at the time being cafeteria food from school, I was inclined to agree. Steamed peas? Green beans boiled until they were turning yellow? Raw vegetable salads? These foods seemed so basic and flavorless compared to the stir fries of Chinese cooking which involved much washing, slicing, cooking, and saucing. And so I relayed these observations to my parents, who used these findings to reinforce their prejudices against western cuisine. To this day, many first-generation Chinese immigrants hold onto these same prejudices even after having lived in the United States for decades.
Wow, I can really relate to that. My family is almost the same. I've been cooking for several years now, and it's been all standard Chinese fare - stir fry, more stir fry, hong shao, etc - even within Chinese cuisine I'm actually pretty limited in what I can make. After reading your blogs though, I'm excited for college since I can experiment with cooking some new stuffs
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Nice recipe... though it seems that the fish cooks pretty long, but I guess the low temperature and the wine make up for it indeed as you so rightly observe .
Don't know if you did and others are aware of it, but if you make a cross like incision in the tomatoes before boiling them they are way easier to peel!
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On May 03 2012 11:59 JingleHell wrote:
Have you tried just slapping together any recipes yet? Homebrewed recipes can be some of the best (and worst) experiences you'll ever have with food, but sometimes it will introduce you to flavors you'll almost never see in a cookbook.
Like nutmeg in a batter on basa fish. Just a tiny bit. Delicious. (Nutmeg is really easy to overdo, by the way.)
In retrospect, that would have turned out better if I hadn't tried to make up a batter from the ground up, but just chosen seasonings to taste, but hey. Live and learn.
A lot of my past blogs involve original or tweaked recipes.
I usually don't follow recipes exactly, but there is always a specific purpose when I do, which is usually when I am trying to learn about new ingredients, techniques, or an entire cuisine that I'm not familiar with.
In terms of homebrewed recipes, it's one thing to add peanut butter to your oatmeal and another to know exactly which type of wine would go even better with that new chicken recipe you're cooking up. In order for me to get to the latter type of experimentation and create truly unique recipes I must occasionally (more than occasionally, really) follow established recipes that are crafted by master chefs through the decades in order to truly understand how various ingredients and cooking techniques function.
It might sound boring to a lot of people, but yeah.
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On May 03 2012 18:06 Newbistic wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2012 11:59 JingleHell wrote:
Have you tried just slapping together any recipes yet? Homebrewed recipes can be some of the best (and worst) experiences you'll ever have with food, but sometimes it will introduce you to flavors you'll almost never see in a cookbook.
Like nutmeg in a batter on basa fish. Just a tiny bit. Delicious. (Nutmeg is really easy to overdo, by the way.)
In retrospect, that would have turned out better if I hadn't tried to make up a batter from the ground up, but just chosen seasonings to taste, but hey. Live and learn. A lot of my past blogs involve original or tweaked recipes. I usually don't follow recipes exactly, but there is always a specific purpose when I do, which is usually when I am trying to learn about new ingredients, techniques, or an entire cuisine that I'm not familiar with. In terms of homebrewed recipes, it's one thing to add peanut butter to your oatmeal and another to know exactly which type of wine would go even better with that new chicken recipe you're cooking up. In order for me to get to the latter type of experimentation and create truly unique recipes I must occasionally (more than occasionally, really) follow established recipes that are crafted by master chefs through the decades in order to truly understand how various ingredients and cooking techniques function. It might sound boring to a lot of people, but yeah.
Oh no, I understand entirely. I picked up a bit when I was younger, and then a bit more watching cooking shows while recovering from hangovers in the Army. It definitely helps to have some sort of base to work from, I was just curious, because it can be a lot of fun.
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Looks real good.
I suppose that sauce would go good with a couple other white fishes, ya? I was thinking sea bass would be awesome with that. Though I've only had cod once or twice, so I don't know how that taste compares.
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Why is the baking necessary for this dish, or fish in general if it's not purely cooked in the over? Also I've mostly heard that using canned tomatoes with fresh ones together give it a much stronger tomato taste unless you are making more of a salsa kind of sauce.
Still, that looks mighty delicious. Keep it up! ;D
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Nice recipe. For the title, cabillaud and morue are more or less the same kind of fish, we just don't use it in the same context. Here cabillaud would make more sense^^
On May 02 2012 17:04 Disregard wrote:
Why not just substitute with a big can of nice chunk tomatoes?
If you have bad quality tomatoes it won't change much, if you have decent one, the flavor will be much better.
My mother does that kind of stuff very often, and while it's always pretty good for me, it tastes much better with good tomatoes too.
On May 04 2012 06:18 Hawk wrote:
Looks real good.
I suppose that sauce would go good with a couple other white fishes, ya? I was thinking sea bass would be awesome with that. Though I've only had cod once or twice, so I don't know how that taste compares.
I'd say yes to your answer, but if the fish has more taste than cod, the sauce might smother its flavor a bit, which could be a pity.
Nice blog =)
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i checked out your blog, the mac and cheese looks amazing
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On May 05 2012 06:55 corumjhaelen wrote:Nice recipe. For the title, cabillaud and morue are more or less the same kind of fish, we just don't use it in the same context. Here cabillaud would make more sense^^ Show nested quote +On May 02 2012 17:04 Disregard wrote:
Why not just substitute with a big can of nice chunk tomatoes? If you have bad quality tomatoes it won't change much, if you have decent one, the flavor will be much better. My mother does that kind of stuff very often, and while it's always pretty good for me, it tastes much better with good tomatoes too. Show nested quote +On May 04 2012 06:18 Hawk wrote:
Looks real good.
I suppose that sauce would go good with a couple other white fishes, ya? I was thinking sea bass would be awesome with that. Though I've only had cod once or twice, so I don't know how that taste compares.
I'd say yes to your answer, but if the fish has more taste than cod, the sauce might smother its flavor a bit, which could be a pity. Nice blog =)
Ye off-season you might as well use canned foods, but during the harvest season you can discover the true flavour of a dish by using fresh and ripe quality ingrediënts. Being aware of when what is harvested helps you up the quality of your dishes so much.
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Tried this last night and it was good <3
I have such a love-hate relationship with your blogs. Always make me so hungry D:
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EPT
